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: Charles A. Krugel, Labor & Employment Law, HR Law

Response to Comments from My Prior Post on ?Ruse Calling?

By charlesakrugel

My post on “rusing” or “ruse calling” led to a number of interesting and instructive comments.  I thought that it might be worthwhile to respond to them in a single post.

First, I think that it’s a novel concept to equate employees as being the same as “property,” especially in the context of criminally convicting someone for “wire fraud.”   However, in the criminal law context, I don’t think that rusing is the same as wire fraud, unless a company can make a really strong case that an employee is company property and can be barred from going from one employer to another because a recruiter tricked them into leaving, and that the criminal justice system needs to imprison the recruiters perpetrating that fraud in order to prevent them or others from doing the same thing.

Let’s get real about this.  A recruiter who ruses to get past a gatekeeper in order to reach a real decision maker or information holder isn’t committing a federal crime.

But, in answer to the writer who asked if there’s a point where rusing could become illegal the answer is yes.  This will occur when rusing has been clearly indicated as being either criminally or civilly liable conduct.  This can occur via legislation or court decision.  But it hasn’t happened yet.  In the civil law context, liability (money damages or equitable relief) may occur if an enforceable contract or agreement has been violated.

Full post as published by Charles A. Krugel, Labor & Employment Law, HR Law on March 22, 2009 (boomark / email).